On Tuesday, the Columbus City Council will make board appointments to the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau and Columbus Municipal School District.
Not that it’s any of your business, of course.
The former board controls $1.6 million in taxpayer money. The latter oversees probably the single most vital institution in our city.
In other places, the importance of these positions invites deliberation and public participation.
In fact, when the Starkville Board of Aldermen last made an appointment to the city’s school board, it held a public meeting that lasted four hours. Every candidate was thoroughly — some might say exhaustively — vetted in a public forum before the selection was made.
But the Columbus Mayor and City Council, as we have come to realize, cannot be bothered by what regular people might have to say.
There are currently seven candidates for one school board position — incumbent Aubra Turner along with Greg Lewis, Willie Petty Sr., James Samuel, David Gatewood, Sylvester Marks and Clifford Reynolds. There are three candidates for two CVB board positions — incumbents Nadia Dale and Whirllie Byrd, along with Fred Kinder. Applications for both positions are open until Monday.
Typically, you would expect each candidate would be given an opportunity to make his or her case before a public audience at the council meeting. Each would be on equal footing and each could be evaluated by the council and the public alike. After all, the selected candidate will have to stand before the public in his or her role as a board member. The selection would be made at the subsequent meeting, assuring that the public had at least some input into a decision that affects them.
That would be a fair, logical way to do this.
But that is not what the council will do Tuesday. Here is precisely what will happen. There will be no discussion. By prearranged agreement among council members, one candidate’s name will be nominated and seconded and will be voted into the position. You will not be given the courtesy of hearing from a single candidate — not even the candidate the council has pre-selected.
We know this is what will happen because this is the way it has happened before. The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors uses the same tactic because, quite frankly, the supervisors don’t seem to care what you think, either.
The Dispatch has protested this flawed system many times before. We will continue to protest this method of filling these positions because we are firmly convinced that it circumvents the public’s rightful role in government, nor does it always lead to the best outcome.
These officials have never once offered a defense to our criticism of this tactic. They simply ignore it and, we suspect, they will continue to ignore it, which represents not an insult to The Dispatch, but to the citizens they are presumed to be serving.
They can do this because they know that you will not call them to protest this sort of back-room deal-making.
After all, you have never complained before, right?
So Tuesday night, the council will make the choices they want to make and they don’t much care whether you like it or not.
This is their city, after all. They can do as they please.
They always have.
And look what we have to show for it.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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